Snowfall
by Jewel1001
Summary: It snows at Duel Academy, and the newly matured Jaden Yuki hears something special from an old rival that he's wanted to hear for so long...


Hazeru - Mainly I wrote this because I just wanted to write something with Rivalshipping...

Hera - Hope it turned out okay. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Snowfall

The falling flakes seemed to have been sifted by the heavens above the full, thick clouds that hung overhead, obscured by the thousands of individual snowflakes which wound their way around in the wind before finally falling onto the dusted ground, adding each time to the unarranged ensemble which completed the snow-covered-ground look; soon it would become deeper and more troublesome, but more beautiful as well.

The sky seemed to have turned pure white, as though competing with the ground to determine which of them, top or bottom, could look the most pure. And indeed the ground did presently look as if it was being enriched by pure white – in this snowfall, nobody dared to venture outside and so the becoming wonderland was left alone, touched upon only by nature as nature saw fit.

It was in this bright, untouched world – so rare to see although it could be commonplace if not for living beings – that a young duellist stood motionless with the snow falling around him; he appeared to be trapped in a snow globe although, should he choose to do so, he could leave the scene whenever he liked. However, he did not wish to move at all: to move would be to taint this wintery world.

This heavy snowfall was entirely unexpected; the young duellist was clad in only a thin jacket, with neither gloves nor hat nor scarf to warm him. His hands felt immensely cold, turning red at the tips and shaking slightly, and his nose was red and slightly sore. The raw wind seemed to travel straight through the thin fibres of his jacket and the thinner material of his shirt to touch icily upon his skin; still he did not dare to move. It seemed impossibly wrong to make a footstep in the three millimetre high snow on the ground, even though he logically knew that, as soon as the flakes stopped falling, there would be children and adults alike ruining the magical effect that it created so naturally.

Breathing out, his eyes fell momentarily on the wisps he could see in the air where he'd just breathed; somewhere in the back of his mind, he was fairly sure that he could remember the explanation for this, but at the moment he couldn't quite recall it. He didn't deem it worthy for him to dwell upon, either. Instead, he just gazed up at the tree that was parallel to his own body, noticing how one side was untouched bark, and the other dusted in frozen flakes.

The tree was so similar to him.

He was like that, too: he had two different sides to him although they were all part of the same person. Like the snow-covered bark was part of the same tree, so too was the Supreme King a part of his soul; two sides of the same coin, so to speak.

It was a funny thing, really; just a few months ago, he would have been running carelessly through this beauty, ignorant of how clean and pure and fresh it all looked. Now, he was more mature. Now, he was aware and noticed things he never had before. Now, he was able to see clearly, through the eyes of an adult.

He breathed out again; more foggy breaths partially obscured his vision – vision that could be more focused and sensitive, if he so chose – and he narrowed his eyes slightly to enable him to see more clearly, determined to witness more of the falling beauty while he could still bear the cold temperature and the icy wind that was becoming ever fiercer. Around him, the frozen flakes fell without a care, landing on the ground and adding to their brothers and sisters to create the 'winter wonderland' effect, which he already knew would be all that was visible when he woke up the next morning and looked out of the window.

It was far better to see it being created, though, than it was just to see the finished effect. To see the world he knew become slowly white and cold and slippery was something he had never witnessed – witnessed with maturity – in his entire life, even though he knew that it would not be his last time to see such a precious scene.

A smile vaguely pulled at the corners of his lips, which were rapidly becoming dry and chapped. He had meant to be out here for a few moments and instead had been rooted to the spot as the first of the snowflakes fell; that must have been fifteen minutes ago. Funny how a short trip to the outside world, for reasons he no longer remembered, could turn into long enough for his teeth to be chattering.

He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he should go back indoors before he caught some form of influenza or virus and was restricted to bed rest by the school nurse; no doubt his friends would notify her at top speed should he fall ill. That was a thought to later ponder on, as well: nowadays, due to his recent fusion, would his immune system have been in any way altered? He doubted it, but there was always that possibility, and he should probably look into it...

But not now. Not while there was so much that he could take in simply by standing and watching, not while he had this present freedom to just stand and observe. Soon enough, he would be graduating and then, he was all too aware, his real adventures would begin, intertwined with duties and keeping in touch with various friends who would soon be spread out across the globe.

Not that he wouldn't manage; he would. It was inevitable and expected, as well as altogether necessary, but that didn't mean he looked forward to it. He was ready to leave Duel Academy, it was true, thanks partly to recent events, but there would always be a certain level of sadness in him at the thought of not seeing all his friends every day, even though he didn't spend as much time with them now as he had before. Just because he wasn't with them for ninety nine per cent of his time now did not mean he didn't still care about them just as much as he had; if anything, now that he was watching each of them gradually choose their paths, he cared for them even more.

/

Smiling slightly, he finally turned and headed back to his dorm, purposely taking long strides in an attempt to mark the snow as little as he possibly could; he knew the footprints would be covered by the morning, but such things meant so little that he didn't quite see the point in trying to take them into account.

Despite the fact that his balance was fairly good thanks to years of duelling, he still grabbed the banister to ensure that he wouldn't fall as he ascended the steps to his dorm room, mainly out of habit; his balance had always been pretty good, but his natural clumsiness had often caused him to be careful, not that anyone would have believed him if he'd told them this.

Once he had closed the door behind himself, the young man crawled onto the bottom bunk, not bothering to turn on the lights. Nowadays, he found a form of comfort in darkness, something that he never had before; he did not find it unpleasant. More often than once his friends had remarked to him – sometimes one-to-one, as was Alexis' custom, and sometimes in front of the group, as was Chazz's usual technique – that it was strange how suddenly he had become fond of being encased in darkness. When questioned, he had merely shrugged and smiled, mostly because he didn't want to, and would not, explain to them why the Supreme King took comfort from the darkness. He wasn't sure yet if they would understand the way he did about the gentle darkness, about how it wasn't the classic evil darkness depicted by movies.

With the lights off, the small, halfway messy dorm room was rather dark, although natural light seeped in from around the edges of the curtain, where it had been torn last time Pharaoh had taken a leap at the ball of light that was Professor Banner's spirit, when his claws had become tangled and caught in the material and he'd yowled until he had, after a struggle, managed to free himself. Jaden had witnessed that scene, even though he had been too busy laughing to help the poor cat.

The Slifer closed his eyes contently as he felt the other soul within him growing stronger as Yubel decided to make her presence more known; his eyelids didn't have to shift a millimetre for him to know that she was smirking at the way he was curled up and rubbing his hands together to create some heat. If he became sick, she would be the first to berate him for standing outside in the snow without a jacket. A silence fell over the room, light as the falling flakes outside, and comfortable, but not long-lasting, for it was only minutes later when the knock on the door came, and Jaden reluctantly opened one eye. He vaguely contemplated not answering at all, but thought the better of it and rose from his place on the bed. Already he found that he missed the warmth; it was becoming colder as the day slowly but surely darkened and got ever close to being night.

On opening the door – letting the icy wind get in, making the duellist wish that he could slam it closed again – Jaden was rather surprised to see his old friend and rival, Chazz Princeton, standing there, red cheeked and shivering. Surely he didn't simply need a place to stay to get out of the wind? He had a perfectly good, far larger room of his own.

But Chazz had not come to get away from the bitter weather, although it was immediately blatantly obvious that he was none too pleased with the whirling snow. Without waiting for an invitation, he semi-shoved Jaden back into the room and entered himself, kicking the door shut behind him and shaking his head to clear his hair of the snowflakes which were making his dark hair shiny but wet and cold.

Raising one eyebrow, Jaden half-glared at the other; he'd barged in here without any obvious reason and had interrupted Jaden's relaxation time in doing so, and he had better not have done this without there being a cause for it. He waited impatiently for the other to say something enlightening, but instead, when Chazz spoke, it was a growl that merely stated that the room could do with being tidied up.

Jaden's eyes rolled at his comment; there were so many better things he could do with his time, so many people to meet and duels to take part in and duties to be fulfilled. He didn't satisfy his old rival with a reply; instead he simply crawled back onto the bottom bunk – cursing in the back of his mind that the warm spot his body heat had created was already gone – and lay down on his back with his arms folded behind his head, his eyes fixed on Chazz, who merely glared back at him.

Ever since his return to this world, Jaden's relationship with Chazz had been strained. He got the feeling – and indeed not without reason – that Chazz had not forgiven him for the events in Dark World. He was sure that, somewhere in the back of their minds, none of his friends would ever truly forgive him for what had happened, but they had accepted him back into their hearts and this was all he could ever ask for. But out of all of his friends, Chazz had been the hardest one for him to speak with; the dark, penetrating eyes had made him feel slightly uneasy when he'd seen how accusing their gaze could truly be.

Indeed, Chazz had 'forgiven' Jaden for all that had happened, but there were thoughts and feelings he would share not with Jaden. Or at least, that had been the situation up until he had decided that keeping it all bottled up inside was stressful to him, and that it would all be so much easier if he just talked to Jaden.

Now, he found that getting defensive, as was his usual stance when in the presence of this particular duelling rival, was not going to do any good; it would neither make him feel powerful nor would it intimidate the other – and although it could not be denied that his fiery temper was quick to spark, he was clever, and he recognised this without resentment. So in acknowledgement, Chazz leaned casually against the desk parallel to the bed, his arms folded out of habit.

The silence that fell over the room was, this time, tension filled and uncomfortable; awkward and with an air of anticipation. It was almost funny that this convinced both of them, in the back of their minds, that they really were rivals – they were competing even now, only this time it wasn't in a duel; it was instead to see which of them would break first.

In the end, it seemed that Jaden, as ever, won.

"Look, slacker," Chazz began, "I'm still mad at you, but..."

He bit his lip; that hadn't quite come out the way he had intended it. He could taste the bitterness of his tone and he didn't want to sound so venomous; he had come here to talk not to argue.

In acknowledgement, Jaden sat up on the bed, his feet on the floor and his arms crossed over his knees, back slouched to show that he was not getting defensive; he knew how easily Chazz could be pushed into a verbal stand-off if challenged. Once in position, his eyes met the darker eyes of the Princeton and he waited.

Chazz was tempted to ask what he was doing – it was so unlike Jaden to just be quiet and listen. Or, at least it had been; this new Jaden was still surprising all of them. Of course, his natural pride did not allow him to say anything, and he instead thought things through a little in his mind – all of it taking around five seconds – before he restarted his speech.

"You've changed." That was all he said before Jaden looked away from him; he had expected this, though, so he wasn't particularly fazed by it. "I don't know what the heck happened in that place, but whatever it was, it's left some kind of mark on you."

Jaden inwardly cringed, knowing to what his friend was referring. If only he fully understood, then it would be different...

But no, there were things that Jaden knew were better kept to himself; should he need help, he wasn't technically alone, since Yubel was always with him. There was no point in worrying his friends by putting a burden on their shoulders that they would not be able to carry like he could himself.

Although Chazz in particular was likely resilient enough to try.

Seeing that Jaden was struck by his words, Chazz was almost tempted to not continue, but the will of the duellist inside him forced him to go on, no matter how much effort it was now taking to not turn away from the Slifer.

"And you know what the worst thing is, slacker?" he snarled, unable to keep his cool. "Worst part is, even after you practically killed us," – there was a visible cringe at that – "and after all the stuff you did ... even after all that, Jaden, I still love you."

Jaden's eyes snapped open as a barely audible gasp left his lips; no matter what he might have been expecting, and all aforementioned comments had been expected, the conclusion to it all had been entirely different to what Jaden had imagined.

His eyes met Chazz's once again, although this time they were softer and more piercing; Chazz looked away the second he realised that the Slifer was looking into him in a way that only he could.

Jaden saw all that he had ever seen in Chazz: hatred, passion, determination, desperation, ability, smarts, hope...

But there was something else there, now, along with all these other things; something new. It was, undoubtedly, the emotion that Jaden had longed to see in the eyes of the Princeton since midway through his second year at Duel Academy, although he had never admitted it to anyone but himself and Yubel.

It was love. And not just love; not just the sort of thing that he had seen in Chazz when the boy had harboured a crush on Alexis Rhodes, when it was childish, new and wholly unrequited besides.

No, this was pure and true. This was not defined as a crush or as attraction. It could be defined only as love.

And Jaden could see that Chazz was beating himself up for it. Clearly, the Princeton had accepted his feelings, acknowledged them to the best of his ability, but that he wasn't entirely happy with them. Perhaps it was because Jaden was also male? Or perhaps it was just because Jaden was Jaden Yuki, Chazz's greatest rival. Either way, he saw that Chazz was not undecided, just unfulfilled and waiting.

Waiting for Jaden. Waiting for him to act or speak, but mainly to simply acknowledge.

And acknowledge he did.

Jaden rose from the bed and walked the two short steps over to Chazz – there was little space to move around freely in this room, but then, Jaden had always insisted that the smallness of the Slifer dorm was all part of its unique charm – and stopped, facing his oldest rival, so that there were perhaps twenty centimetres between their noses.

Chazz blinked but maintained an expressionless mask of indifference. He may have just given Jaden what was considered a love confession, no less, but he was hardly going to swoon and simper because he was 'in love'. That had never been, was not and would never be his style. He denied to himself that his heart rate had increased in the past few moments only because nobody else could know to contradict him.

Jaden smiled slightly and Chazz's breath hitched; ever since the Slifer's return to this world, Chazz had not yet seen him smile with the same heart that he had used to. To finally see it again, albeit in a smaller and calmer smile, was nothing short of enormously reassuring – it proved to Chazz that the old Jaden was not entirely gone; he had not changed so much as matured, and somehow that made all the difference.

A hand reached out to lie on Chazz's shoulder, and the paler of the two could do nothing except raise one eyebrow questioningly.

"Are you sure?" Jaden whispered.

Chazz's heart skipped a beat as he realised that his feelings were not unrequited. The emotions shining in Jaden's eyes – the most he had seen since the boy's return – could mean nothing less.

He did not know how to react in the form of words so settled instead for a simple nod. Jaden's eyes seemed to almost glitter for a moment before they dulled and he frowned slightly.

"Even though I've ... changed?"

Chazz gulped slightly, wondering what hidden meanings were behind those words and knowing that he would never be able to figure it out. He did not know how to answer and knew that nodding again would make him appear dumbstruck, which was far from his intention, and so he just raised one hand to lie on Jaden's shoulder, making sure his forefinger could gently stroke the skin through the material of his Slifer jacket where the neck met the shoulder.

"Even though."

And a genuine, wide smile broke out across Jaden's features.

He had fallen in love with Chazz in his second year but he had never acted on his feelings, at first because he was too naive to realise what they were and then because he was too embarrassed. Upon his maturing with the help of his guardian, he had decided that Chazz did not feel the same way and so that he should do the most effective thing and just let him go.

Now, though, here was the very same Chazz Princeton telling him that he had been wrong. His feelings were not unrequited. In fact, they were wholly returned and with such a passion that Jaden wondered how he had never before noticed.

And Chazz had to be serious, if he was willing to accept Jaden regardless of the Dark World events, or of how he had 'changed'.

Jaden leaned in so that his head was resting against Chazz's, their cheeks pressed together gently. He could feel the warm, tingling breath of the other against his neck through his jacket, and he smiled once again as he realised that Chazz could feel the same thing from him.

The two stood in this position for a few moments before, hesitantly, one of them wrapped his arms around the slender waist of the other, who waited only for a tenth of a second to mirror the action.

And it was in this position that they would stay for many minutes until, eventually, their eyes would meet again, before they simultaneously closed as their mouths met for the first, but not the last, time...

Hazeru - I wonder how long it took Chazz to swallow his pride enough to do that.

Hera - No flames. Please R&R.


End file.
